Iron Man with a Plan DISCONTINUED
by FanficDelivery
Summary: After the horrifying events in Amsterdam, Steve and Tony are ready to start their life together. But when Thanos gets in the way and Tony can't handle the pressure on his own, things won't exactly go their way. SEQUEL to "Stark Spangled Man", in which the two superheroes try to go for a more domestic lifestyle, but fail spectacularly.
1. Chapter 1

**[A/N Sorry for taking so long, folks. Here is the first chapter of a brand new story, resolving cliffhangers from the last one and proceeding with a fresh plot to hopefully amuse and entertain you all. Do enjoy.]**

Part 1.

My hands were shaking as I strode into the dark alleyway in which I usually went to take my fix. It was easy, quick and expensive. But money was one of the few things I didn't have a shortage of. Just some coke to get through the day after my fight with Steve. As if he knew what I was thinking, a text message of Steve made its way into my inbox. I ignored it, afraid of what it might say, and continued walking.

Just as soon as I set foot on the snow-covered ground of the alley I was pressed into the wall with a hand held against my mouth to stop me from making any other sounds than some muffled protests. I started swinging my arms rapidly, kicking in all sorts of directions while wondering how the hell I could have been so ignorant as to not be alert in this kind of neighbourhood. I tried turning around to take a look at my opponent but all that I saw was white for my eyes as my neck was being squeezed by an armoured hand.

"Don´t scream, I´m not here to hurt you." The British accent struck me, and reminded me of one person, and one person only. And if his intention had been to release my throat, said intention had now been reversed because the voice created such a panic in me that all I could think of was _escape, get your sorry ass out of here, Tony_. Strangely enough, _cooperate, do what he wants_ wasn´t.

Just as he was about to switch his hold on me, I stomped my elbow backwards, hitting him in the stomach successfully. He stumbled backwards and for the first time I was able to take a proper look at my offender and I indeed found myself eye to eye with Loki Laufeyson. If hearing his voice had freaked me out, seeing him there, face revealed by the helmet that had been knocked off, sent both a shiver through my spine and a wave of painful flashbacks through my mind.

"I understand that my appearance might frighten you, but I won't hurt you." He held up his hands, but all that I could see when looking at those hands were the images of him whipping me. Him throwing me against a wall. He said he wouldn't hurt me, but all that I could hear were the sneers that I wasn't good enough, that I was a failure and that someone like Steve could never love someone like me. _Big man in a suit of armour. Take that away and what are you?_

"No. You left. You were going to leave Steve alone. You swore." I whispered, slowly backing away, my hands scrambling for grip on a wall that my wobbling legs had not yet managed to reach.

"I just need your h-" the rest of the sentence was cut off as I fell backwards, tripping over a discarded soda bottle and falling to the ground with the last, terrible thought that I had failed to protect the only thing in the world that I really cared about.

* * *

**TWO WEEKS EARLIER**

Steve POV

"We've got to get him out of the ground!" I shouted, motioning for Clint to throw me the shovel with which we had just thrown the dirt onto Thor.

"What, jus-just because s-something moved?" He shouted back, trying to raise his voice over the loud cracks of lightning around us.

"Just give me the damn shovel. Bruce, get Jane out of here." It took Bruce a few seconds to move his eyes from the spot where Thor's hand had just reached out. The obviously freaked out professor then finally grabbed Jane by her arm and lead her out of here despite her protests. "Natasha, will you please bring my high boyfriend somewhere where he can't hurt himself or jump off a building in an imaginary iron man suit?"

"I'll see what I can do for you," She nodded, getting a hold of Tony and expertly making him come with her.

I knew that Thor being alive was impossible. But what we'd just seen had been real. And the only way to know what the hell was going on was by digging him up. Getting everybody out of here was the first priority though, because shocked bystanders were not going to help me while scandalizing the grave of the God of Thunder. I started digging frantically, Clint the only one left to keep me company during this awful task.

"Man, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, you felt his pulse. Or lack, thereof. What do you expect to find?" I shrugged off the hand that he had laid on my thoroughly soaked shoulder.

"Clint, I appreciate your concern, but if there is any chance that he is alive I'm going to find it out."

"Steve-"

"Look if you are not going to be doing anything useful, at least don't stand in my way" I sneered, hearing the unmistakeable sound of my shovel hitting the wooden casket in which we had buried him. From there on I started using my hands, trying to get a good grip on the pieces of soil despite the rain, which had turned the once solid ground into mud. Clint mumbled a series of profanities, clearly not all too eager to engage in these grave robbing activities.

"This is just dandy, Cap. Just _dandy_." He took the other side of the casket and together, we pulled it out of the grave. We both looked at it in shock. Not only had we just robbed a grave, but more importantly, there was a gigantic hole in the top of the casket where the wood had been penetrated by Thor's hand and arm.

"Son of a God.." Clint mumbled, quite accurately. He looked at me, waiting for instructions. I was starting to feel a little nauseous because damn, who the heck wouldn't get a shiver or two from digging up their supposedly dead friend. I shook off my jacket, using the expensive material to get a better grip on the polished wood. Using my superhuman strength, I managed to tear off the top, ignoring the nails with which the two parts had been sealed.

There he was laying. Supposedly dead but with his chest moving rapidly, heart pumping and trying to get oxygen to his vital organs. Then it stopped. I had wasted his life once, I wasn't going to waste it twice.

I had never known this before his death, but Thor had been the only one that could ever have truly understood what I was going through. He and I were equals in the sense that we had both been completely out of our element upon walking this Earth in this period of time. Where I felt stupid not being able to handle a laptop, Thor couldn't even make a cup of coffee without dummy stepping in or setting of the fire alarm.

"I'll uh, I'll find Natasha and Bruce to help you."

It looked like Clint was still trying to understand what the heck I was trying to achieve, but I had only one goal. Saving Thor's life. And this time, doing it right. I refused to fail again. I hoisted him out of his coffin, removing the armour that the team and Jane had agreed on having him wear so that I could start CPR. Working without a pair of extra hands was difficult, but I managed to accurately time exhales, inhales, and chest compressions.

"Come on." I mumbled, swiping away an odd mingle of sweat, tears and rain from my face. My hands were sore from pushing, my cheeks red from the rain that was falling on them. My knees were placed in the mud and hurting despite the softness of it. Time was ticking and the chance of Thor surviving was getting smaller. It felt like his life was slowly slipping away, out of my grasp, despite the effort I was putting in keeping him with me for once and for all.

After minutes of trying to get his heart to beat, I fell down on top of him out of exhaustion. Thor was a big, muscled man and even with my strength, producing enough of it to get press down on his ribs was tiring. In a final, desperate attempt I tried something I'd seen on a television show and used the last of my energy to deal a strong blow right where his heart was.

With a shuddering breath, Thor took in his first gulp of fresh air, sending it straight to his lungs and heart and I fell down again, hearing the beating of his heart right under my ear as I gave a little squeal in victory.


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you for all the lovely reviews. It's nice to know that people are still looking forward to more chapters :D you will know what happened to Thor next chapter. I'm just working out some steebie/tony shit before they can be one big happy family again._

(Sorry for the POV change..)

* * *

TONY POV

Part 2.

Steve and his laptop had some sort of love/hate relationship. Meaning that it did all the loving, and he did all the hating. He threw the by me newly acquired drawing tablet across the room in frustration, vowing that whatever new technology be invented, he would always stick to pencils and paper.

"Woah there, Captain. That was the newest model, you know." I laid my hand on his shoulder and he jumped in shock, almost throwing the contents of his Stark coffee cup over my face but stopping just in time to make it look like he was casually picking it up for a sip. He had grown a weird liking to sugary coffee ever since Natasha had served it to him and forced it down his throat with her scary looks.

I was giving him one of those smothering looks that he knew meant that I was really hoping for some quality time, but he poked my chest, finger making an odd sound on my arc reactor.

"I'm still angry with you." And even though He probably hadn't meant this has a heavy statement, and was probably just letting me know that I shouldn't appear high as a shrimp at a funeral ever again, the after-effects, shock and fatigue had made me incredibly edgy. I shocked Steve and I both with the sudden outburst that neither had seen coming.

"You are angry at me, huh. What, for pretending to be sleeping with Pepper so that I could go with Loki without you coming after me? For giving myself up to save all of you? For inventing a portal that Thor could use to get to Thanos? Or for being traumatized by all this and therefore requiring your help while escaping, making you unable to get the gems of infinity?

Or was it maybe, because I had no one to talk to about all this, and that the pressure was too much, and that therefore I needed a little bit of medication to keep me from killing myself on the day of my buddy's funeral? Tell me, Steve, because I am deadly curious to know which of my selfless sacrifices makes you the angriest." He was stunned silent for a while, letting my words get to him before being able to reply properly.

"You could have told me." He finally told me, like it would have _mattered._

"What, so you could scold me for not understanding the way that you seem to think that you and I are a fair match?" I didn't think anything Steve would ever say or do would ever make me feel worthy for him. Maybe in due time. But Loki had been brainwashing me for over a month with the sole purpose to get me to believe that I was _unworthy_. It would take some effort to convince me otherwise.

"Why are you making this so hard on yourself, Tony? We could be so happy, yet you twist everything that I say around to make it seem like the whole world is working on your death sentence or something. We could be so perfect. Why do you do that, Tony, why do you make everything so terribly hard on yourself when it could all be so easy?"

"Because, Steve, it has never been easy." I said, crouching down to pick up the drawing tablet and thrusting it back in his grip. Without another word I grabbed my coat, walking out the door and leaving Steve on his own to mule on his thoughts.

I was kind of hoping that the kid I'd gotten the drugs from last time was still around. We had chatted about our miserable lives last time. I mean, plenty of food for conversation. He had told me that both his parents were dead, and that he'd lived with his aunt and uncle for a while. That his uncle got killed because of him and that he would never be able to live with his aunt ever again.

When he had told me that he was a great science fan, we had been able to talk about that for a few hours, too. He turned out to be a brilliant kid and if he hadn't had such a miserable past, I was sure he would have been able to become a professor. Sad kid he was.

I walked through the streets, watching the neighbourhoods slowly turn from peaceful and beautiful to dark and shabby. It was 11 pm already, and the wind was strong, shoving bunches of snow from the roofs onto the slippery grounds. I wrapped my coat around me a little tighter in an attempt not to freeze to death.

The street I next stepped into was home of at least 50 street cats, a couple of homeless guys and the occasional drug dealer. You can imagine how well I fit in with my $500 designer coat and my fancily shaven beard.

"Mr Stark!" The teen called out for me, moving out of the shadows from the buildings that towered over us from both sides of the alleyway.

"Hey kid." I said, shaking his hand lamely.

"You came back!" He smiled at me as if I was the only one in the world that would ever care to come back for him. Which, sadly, might just be true. "Is something wrong? You don't look too well." He slapped himself across the face before I'd even said anything, and I was pretty intrigued by his sheer amount of energy. "Of course something is wrong, why else would you come for cocaine."

"I just.. I got in a fight with who has got to be the love of my life. Well," I said, considering as I sat down next to him on an old bin, "it was more me shouting some crap." He looked at me, big brown eyes visible behind his broken glasses. I needed to remember to get him a new pair. He looked back between his lap and me a few times.

"You are Iron Man, you'll figure something out. I mean, let's face it. After all the women you've been with, you've got to know something about them right?" He gave me a pat on the knee, and I felt as if his innocent gaze was staring right through me. "I mean my girlfriend ran away after discovering that I'd been bitten by a spider.. or more the side-effects really, but.." He caught himself rambling and stopped mid-sentence. "I'm sorry, Mr Stark, I'll fetch you the stuff."

"No, it's… fine." I said, accepting the small bag of white powder he had produced from his pocket. I dug my fingers in and moved the cocaine between my fingers. He shook his head.

"It's not important. Mr Stark,-"

"Really, kid, stop that. Call me Tony please. Stark reminds me of my father."

"This stuff.. the cocaine. It's really bad for your health, as I'm sure you are aware. You are a genius.. I don't see why you'd be irresponsible enough to use such a substance and God only knows what it will do to your Arc Reactor. I thought you were more the alcoholic type, if you don't mind me being rude." I sighed, giving him an eye-roll that he would probably not see in the darkness. He was like a little Steve sometimes.

"My boyfriend threw away my alcohol tash. And he and my computer system have forbidden anyone in the USA to give me any. You'd say I'd be able to override my own AI… but nope, he's too stubborn."

"Boyfriend, sir?"

"Tony" I corrected. Then nodded, standing up and offering him a set of dollar bills that was at least 40 times the original price of the grams he'd given me. He looked at the money with wide eyes, looking up at me as if checking whether I was serious. I gave him another nod, looking down on him and giving his hair a quick ruffle.

"Thank you, _Peter_."

* * *

_A/N more and more questions. You will get answers soon. Also you could start wondering.. Tony narrated that he had the last terrible thought that he'd failed to protect the only thing that really mattered.. who was he talking about? Surely you assumed Steve but how do you know it wasn't someone else?:)_


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3.

"You have a lot of nerve, showing up here." Steve said, leaning in the doorframe.

"What, at my own house?" I asked, specifically remembering Clint telling me that they had bought the new house with my money (and made a pretty poor decision, going by the looks of it. Only two bathrooms?). Steve rolled his eyes, and by turning my attention to them I immediately noticed the bags under them, too. "Miss me?"

"Tony you are insane. You can't just leave at 11 pm and not return until the morning, not telling me anything? You didn't even throw me an 'I love you' or anything."

"But I love you. I thought it was obvious." I said, moving closer.

"Tony, do you have any idea.. how obvious.. _any_ of your emotions are?" Steve was whispering, lips hovering over mine.

"Right now? Hmm.. I'd say _very._" I was leaning in to him, and then we were in some sort of weird phase in which we couldn't decide what to do. On the one side we had so many issues to solve, but on the other side, we had just discovered how fantastic we could be together.. and we kind of wanted to try that out again.

"We have stuff to discuss." Steve said half-heartedly, taking a step back and giving us both some space.

"Can't 'stuff' wait?" I asked, following him into the living room and staring in horror at our domesticated team-members (because seeing people who fight aliens for a living sharing toast with bacon and chocolate cake was just a little weird sometimes). At any other day I might just have been disgusted by the sight of both toast with bacon _and_ chocolate cake, but at this moment it could only mean one thing. I grinned, looking at the extrodinary man that the Avengers had seen dying... yet here he was, baking chocolate cake and bickering with Clint like a housewife.

"So tell me, Thor. What were you most excited about. Coming back from the dead, or coming back from that shit-hole that Fury calls a medical base?" I asked as the giant ran up to me and even swept me off my feet to give me one of those Thor hugs that everybody has seen and heard about but is dying to receive one day.

"Tony, brother! I was told that you had drunk too much coke! Devilish stuff it is, isn't. I'll stick with coffee. But look at you, looking as dashing as ever, with your manly facial hair still intact." He was smiling at me, and sue me if I was almost crying because of it. He was probably the only one in this room that wasn't either utterly pissed at or disappointed in me (mainly because he had no idea of the double meaning of coke).

"You scared me." Bruce told me. "Scared us."

"What, can't a man get some space once in a while? I was just .. you know.. taking a break."

"Tony.." Steve mumbled.

"I'm in a house with 5 hyper active adults. 2 of whom are fucking each other, one whose my boyfriend and another who turns into a gigantic green monster. Which I still do really like by the way, Bruce. And then there's Thor… who came back from the dead. I think I'm allowed some free time from that once in a while, aren't I?" Natasha, Bruce, Steve and Clint all had crossed arms and were looking at me with raised eyebrows.

"You have become a problem," Natasha explained. "_again_."

"If we can't manage to cheer you up soon, we are going to have Fury do it." Clint went on, and they knew sending me to therapy at Fury's was a serious threat. "So we thought of something. We are going to make you read the fan mail that people have been sending you." What even. What is even going on.

I really, really didn't wwant to know what people had been sending me, but my team was extremely persistent. So I ended up on the couch, with a giant box full of letters in it. Steve was sitting next to me, eyeing me as if I was going to run away again any second. We had been sitting like that for the last 10 minutes and I had not made a move to open one yet.

"Do I have t-"

"Yes."

"But Steebee,-"

"No."

I sighed and picked up a letter, dreading whatever was inside.

Fan mail turned out to be something more than just mail. It seemed like the people who sent it were in some sort of cult. The first three I opened were, if I were to summarize, just telling me that they were glad I was saving the world. But things rapidly got creepier when I opened another one, and a very graphic drawing of me and Bruce fell out. Steve quickly snatched it away and threw it in the bin, blushing and all.

I thought it wouldn't get any worse after that, (even though I had to admit that I wouldn't have denied Bruce anything had the situation occurred and had I not had Steve). But as I went on, I discovered more and more of the freakish world of fangirls and fanfiction.

Sometime during the process, the others had joined us just to make fun of us using the horrendous amounts of fanfiction that was piled up in front of me.

"This one is good. Hear this." Clint said menacingly, waving a piece of paper in front of our faces. "After throwing his Iron man, who was hard as iron in more than one sense as the captain of the sparkled banner realized, on the bed, he reached out for his engorged member, which was at least 8 inches long and 4 inches wide.." He was making wild movements while clutching the letter, and we all (except a grumpy and embarrassed Steve) laughed at the amazing literature Clint was reading out.

"Now you're just making things up, Clint. Everyone knows that Steve is more of a 10-"

"Tony!" Steve panicked, clutching at my arm. "There are other people here!" He whispered, trying to come off as demanding, but more likely to achieve an award for adorable puppy eyes.

"Hmmm.. maybe they should leave" I answered, giving him a long and satisfying kiss which effectively shut him up and had my other team-mates leave us alone (alas while making gagging noises, but gone is gone). "Hmm you are looking exceptionally tempting right now, Steve."

"Is my iron man getting 'hard in more senses than one'?" Steve joked, already slipping out of his jacket and pulling me off from the couch.

"Can't wait for you to find out, Captain of the sparkling banner" I teased back, running after Steve and closing the bedroom behind me with a loud bang as a warning to what we were doing for everyone in the house.

* * *

I was having fun creating a melody by drumming my fingers on Steve's exposed abs, and he appeared to be drawing something on my back.

"Your abs.. they don't make a comfortable cushion." I stated, rolling my head over them as an experiment.

"Hey, don't move, I'm trying to draw something here." He scolded, pressing his firm, strong hand on the small of my back. His fingers were busy tracing lines over my skin, and it was so relaxing that I was almost starting to fall asleep. I was quite happy, satisfied and I felt thoroughly loved. I was with Steve, relaxing, feeling his bare skin under me and feeling his hand on my back. He was nice and warm and a good change from the cold outside.

This was what my team had been trying to achieve. Me, happy. Me doing good so that we could all concentrate on work might the necessity occur. And it was working. But there was one thing they hadn't taken into account. Maybe stress had been the original source of my developing addiction, but eliminating the stress would not cure an entire addiction.

So even though I had been entirely relaxed only minutes ago, and even though I was feeling better than ever, the urge to take drugs was there. The urge that I was trying really hard to repress by concentrating on Steve's skilled hands. I was trying really hard, but Steve could feel my muscles tense, could feel the stress taking over my body and cramping every sinew in my body.

"Tony? Are you alright?"

"Yes.. there is just something I've got to do." I mumbled, rising onto my hands and knees and leaning over to kiss him. "mm. Your hands are a-ma-zing." I said, giving his outstanding chest a teasing slap before crawling off the bed to put on my clothes, which were literally strewn across the room.

"Where are you going?" Steve threw the blank off of him and followed me through the house with no clothes whatsoever. He grabbed my shoulder, his long legs having reached me within seconds.

"Just going for a walk, OK? I'll be back soon, promise."

"OK.. Love you."

"Hmm." I pressed my lips on his, revelling in the fact that I could just do that. That this man was mine and that he was completely used to it by now. "Me too." And then I was out the door, the guilt that I felt so much, yet not enough to stop me from going.

* * *

_I'm sorry.. Thor's explanation had to wait. I can't help it.. Steve and Tony had other plans okhey._

_Also, don't be mad at Tony. Addictions are very, very hard to get rid of. So no angry feels okay he's trying. I've seen people addicted to drugs do much worse than him._


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4.

It was almost two weeks later and Tony still frequently disappeared around midnight. I figured it was just something he does, going out for midnight strolls. We were not very used to sleeping in one bed together, since we hadn't been doing so for long, so I didn't know whether this was usual behaviour or not. I only knew that he was now in the habit of telling me when he was leaving, and that he usually returned before morning. So it was okay. I trusted Tony to tell me if something was wrong, and if for whatever reason he had decided to cheat on me- well, that would suck, but I think I would notice.

Now I had thought about that a lot, about those mysterious moonlit trips, but in the end I had decided to let it go. Tony liked his privacy, and after he had summed it all up, it did seem like he had been through quite a lot. Maybe walking through the spacious streets of Manhattan in the quiet night was helping him process all that. So after accepting that he would vanish once every 3 days or so, you can imagine how pissed I was when he brought up the subject of trust.

"You do trust me ,right?" He asked, seeming a little uncertain, and if I were to be honest, a little guilty as well. Normally I would have seen it as one of those cute Tony moments, in which he was insecure and stammering in contrast with his usual confident smirk and dirty mouth. But I had barely slept that night (mostly because it had taken Tony more than 5 hours, by which time it was already after 3 AM, to realize that sleep might be useful after all), and irritation was starting to pile up.

"Ha! Now that's a good one!" I gave a sceptical laugh, coming off as a little crazy. "Ha-ha. Good, one, Tony. I see how you would be insecure. 'Cause _I'm_ the one that leaves in the middle of the night. Disappears for a couple of hours. _I'm _mister no-feel, sounds like _me_ to never bring up the subject of love. Sound familiar?"

"Well geez, sorry I brought it up. I'll just leave if it suits you better." He mumbled, already pulling a scarf tightly around his neck and grabbing the jacket that he had thrown next to the (of course not on) the clothes hanger and shrugging his arms into it.

"Yes, just run away like you always do. That'll make you seem_ trustworthy_." I snapped.

It was only when he had slammed the door behind him that I was starting to realize how outrageous and immature I had been. Tony was supposed to feel safe with me, was supposed to know that he could share anything, ask anything, without feeling like an imbecile. Now I got angry just because of a small insecurity of his (to which he had no right of having, but still).

As if things weren't bad enough, stuff in all colours and formats seemed to be hitting the fan now as Fury gave us a group-call telling us that Loki had been spotted again. Guess who just let their loved one get out there on his own, in the middle of the night, with a crazy criminal on the loose? Yep, Captain freaking America is who.

I sat down on our bed, picking up a tanktop that I could clearly remember shoving off of him the night before. Flashbacks of love making, of shared, secret moments that seemed to be so perfect at the time, but that now seemed somehow disturbed. Something had been wrong, out of place, and I had been too caught up with myself to notice that Tony had been struggling.

What the hell were we doing. Ruining our chance to be a proper couple by hiding emotions and reading into everything being said. I didn't even let him ask a simple question without starting a fight, no wonder he felt the need to hide an entire cocaine addiction from me! If we would just sit down and talk for once, just the two of us, without reincarnated Thunder Gods or over enthousiastic science buddies. Without shouting at each other at the top of our lungs. Maybe whatever was going wrong could be fixed that way.

But for now there were bigger problems at hand. Whatever Loki had tried to achieve by taking Tony, he might not have achieved it yet and we had pissed him off considerably. Now he had been sighted and my boyfriend was out there, alone, on the dark cold streets doing God know what and there was nothing to protect him for whatever the wizard had in store for him. For all I knew it was Loki who had made us start a fight with his annoying, even more annoyingly so invisible weapon, magic.

I wanted to call him, but my phone was nowhere to be found and I feared that I had forgotten it at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, so not used to taking the useless gadget with me that I had left it there without missing it for a second. In a haste I started a search through our bedroom, trying to find a discarded tablet or phone of some kind and then hope by God that I could get as far as make a call to Tony's cell.

In the end I just strolled into Clint's room and grabbed his mobile phone out of his hand, and started texting rapidly while explaining that Tony had _left_. I left out the part where I told him to.

"You guys were fighting.. again?"

"That's not the damn point." I mumbled, trying to erase the flirty message that Clint had been half through typing before I had confiscated his beloved smartphone. "You heard Fury, Loki has been spotted." Clint snatched the phone back, handing me my own phone.

"Here's your mobile. It was on the freaking lunch table at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s." He was sounding a bit worried as he thrust the 2004 samsung model into my hands. "Come on, send him a text. You can do it." I didn't know whether he was teasing or encouraging, but my attention was already turned to the piece of technology, eyes roaming over the black on sepia letters. With much difficulty, I managed to compose a text that Tony would hopefully be able to decipher.

_Com home. Loki. Danger.i xx_

It was a bit unsettling how proud I was of that one text message. While hitting the send button, a million things were going through my mind. Where was Tony. Was he safe. Would he be coming home soon.

I didn't know that receiving the answers to those questions would result into a new wave of panic altogether. There was a knock on the door (Tony had not yet installed JARVIS in the new house, nor had he installed any kind of security system), so I immediately walked up to the door hoping to find Tony on the other side. Even though I knew the chance was small, considering that he had a key, I was blinded by the hope that he had returned home safely and that I would not be the one responsible for whatever could have happened.

When Loki was standing on the other side I was afraid, for one second, that all Hell would break loose and that we would end up in some kind of battle again. But then my eyes actually focused, anger temporarily dimmed by curiosity, and I could see there was something laying in his arms. A bundle with a black coat draped over it that I shakily realized as Tony´s expensive one, the one we'd bought together and the one that I would never forget because he'd bought it due to my comment of how good it looked on him.

I was standing there, the door seemingly stuck to my hand and my eyes scanning over the bundle until they landed on the patch of hair that was sticking out. I would have recognized the messy black bed hair anytime. I looked up at Loki, expecting to look into the eyes of the devil, expecting no less than a mean grin or a satisfied smirk. What I got instead were light green eyes that were staring at me helplessly.

"I didn't mean to. I swear I didn't want to hurt him.. one minute he was fine and the next he slipped and hit his head. I am truly sorry." He probably knew that I was buying none of his shit. "He's bleeding, we need to help him." I watched nervously as Loki grabbed the hood of the jacket and pulled it away, revealing the previously covered back of Tony's head and the gaping wound that was on it.

"Damn it." I muttered, not for the first time wishing that Tony would for once get away unscathed, and that I could be able to take the pain that he had to go through from him. I threw the coat on the floor, carefully lifting my fragile boyfriend from Loki's arms and placing him on the couch. "Can't you magic it right or something?" I asked in panic, running through the hallways with Loki on my heels. I had no idea where everyone's bedrooms were and there were so many rooms (but only 2 bathrooms, quick reminder) in the house that finding somebody was harder than I thought it would be.

"It doesn't work like that!" Loki shouted, eyes wide in a strangely familiar way that meant that he was worried after all. Why worry about the health of a man you tortured for a month? "I do care for him, you know. In a way." Loki mumbled as if reading my thoughts. I ignored him and started calling out names of team members.

I had never been happier to see Bruce storm out of his room. Considering he was the best medic in the house and that he was the only one awake at this God forsaken hour, I thought he was our best shot. Bruce didn't even comment upon spotting Loki and just gave an eye-roll and mumbled something about drama queens.

It only took Bruce one look at Tony to realize that we should bring him to a hospital. Not only had he hit his head pretty hard, but he was also under the influence of a lot of drugs.

We had somehow both decided that calling 911 at this stage would be useless, and I was already speed-walking towards my car, the hand that I had wrapped around Tony's shoulder drawing small circles to comfort him. I put Tony in the backseat, propping a pillow under his by Bruce bandaged head. Then the question came up whether to take Loki or not.

"He knows exactly what happened." I reasoned, knowing that the doctors would like to know this.

"We can't trust him. Did you forget how Phil died?" Bruce whispered, while Loki was making eyerolls and hopping from toes to heels in the background.

"No," I mumbled irritated, sliding one of Phil's blood-covered Captain America trading cards out of my pocket, where I kept it, and waving it in Bruce's face a couple of times to get the message across, "don't think I ever will. I'm not going to leave him with our sleeping friends, either."

It seemed like Bruce was convinced, so he went to Loki to set up some rules. I was busy trying to make Tony sit comfortably with his head against the car door and his feet propped up on the seat.

"You'll be fine, I promise." I whispered, kissing his cheek and closing the car door.

TBC


End file.
